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2.6 Landings from distant water fisheries

Landings from “distant waters” are here referring to quantities taken by vessels in all FAO major fishing areas other than those adjacent to the flag State6. These landings increased from less than a million tonnes in 1950 to more than 8 million tonnes in 1972 and fluctuated around this value until 1990 and then declined rapidly to about 50% of this value by 1994. As a proportion of total marine landings, however, the landings reached a maximum of about 16% in 1972 and have subsequently declined to about 6% (Figure 14). Figure 15 shows the distant water fishery landings together with the numbers of claims of territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or fishing zone7, and a deflated oil price index8. Distant water fishery landings increased rapidly during the 1960s when oil was cheap and few territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or fishing zones had been declared, as fleets from the USSR, Japan and Europe expanded their range of activities beyond the heavily fished “domestic” waters in order to satisfy a rapidly increasing demand (FAO 1995a, p22). The arrest of this growth was marked by a drop in Alaska pollock catches (Figure 17) which occurred just before a series of major oil price increases between 1974 and 1980 and before the main phase of extension of national jurisdictions from 1975 onwards (Figure 15) and the related increase in the cost of access to the newly “enclosed” resources. Figure 16 shows the loose relationship between fuel price index and distant water landings between 1973 (when the major expansion of distant water fishing ceased) and 1989 (before the collapse of the Eastern European fleets), which explains about 58% of the observed variance. The sharp decrease of these landings from 1990 onwards is clearly due to the ending of heavily subsidised state-sponsored fishing following the political changes in the Republics of the former USSR and Eastern Europe.

6 This definition implies that fisheries taking place outside the EEZ of the flag State but within the same major fishing area are not considered distant water fisheries.

7 Information obtained by courtesy of the UN Office of the Law of the Sea.

8 Oil prices and deflators applied to them taken from IMF (1995).

Figure 14. Distant water fishery landings in relation to total marine landings

Figure 15. Distant water fishery landings in relation to territorial sea and EEZ claims and oil price

Figure 16. Relationship between fuel oil price and landings from distant waters, 1973-1989

Figure 17. Distant water fishery landings by principal species

Some principal species in the landings from distant waters are shown in Figure 17. Distant water fisheries were first developed on high value demersal species, with landings up to about 1970 dominated by Atlantic cod, but then Alaska pollock took over as the major species until its decline from about 1985 onwards. Cape horse mackerel and Chilean jack mackerel also featured prominently during the 1970s and 1980s. Cephalopods contributed more markedly in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although the overall picture is the result of complex interactions between political and economic opportunities and constraints, the shifts in species composition seem to indicate a change in main target area from the North Atlantic (on Atlantic cod, during the 1950s and 1960s), to the Southeast Atlantic (Cape hakes, in the 1960s), to the North Pacific (Alaska pollock, in the 1970s), to the Southeast Pacific (Chilean jack mackerel, in the 1970s and 1980s, following Canada’s EEZ extension) and to the Southwest Atlantic (squids, in the 1990s). The recent decline due to a major decrease in fishing effort by the former USSR and eastern European states resulted in a drop in landings of all principal species groups (aggravated by the decline and collapse of the Northwest Atlantic cod stocks) with the notable exception of tunas which continue to be a favourite target of distant water fishing fleets due to their high value. Tunas accounted for only 6% of distant water landings in 1950 but comprised 46% in 1994. Distant water fishing undertaken without major subsidies has become much less attractive, particularly because of the added cost in gaining access to the resources within other countries’ EEZs, and is often not profitable for low value small pelagics.


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